Prime Minister Boris Johnson paid tribute to "the extraordinary bravery of those members of the public who physically intervened to protect the lives of others and for me they represent the very best of our country and I thank them on behalf of all of our country".

He added: "Anybody involved in this crime and these attacks will be hunted down and will be brought to justice."

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted: "Shocking reports from London Bridge. My thoughts are with those caught up in the incident. Thank you to the police and emergency services who are responding."

Jo Swinson, leader of the Liberal Democrats, praised "brave police who are dealing with it with professionalism". She said her thoughts are with those affected.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan thanked members of the public who risked "their own safety this afternoon".

Members of the public who were near the scene of the attack have reported seeing police detain a suspect, who is believed to have been wearing a mock explosive device.

Witness Cecilia Sodero was on the top deck of a bus going over London Bridge when she heard shots and saw a man lying on the ground with a "very scary device, like a bomb device".

She continued: "The police officers finally removed the knife. But then what happened is when they shot the guy, the guy is still alive, and they shoot and he's trying to pull the black jacket off so I was able to see the vest that he was wearing.

"And it seems like a very scary device, like a bomb device, at that point we just ran away from the bus, crossing the bridge in the other direction.

"The whole thing was very scary, to be honest."

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ITV News Security Editor Rohit Kachroo, who is at London Bridge, said pubs and bars were being evacuated and police helicopters were hovering close to the scene.

A witness who works in a stall in Borough Market, said it looked like a minor incident at first.

Laurence Verfaillie saidL "I thought it was a car crash, it looked like it was pretty minor.

"Suddenly a trader told me the ice cream seller on the bridge has run away yelling there has been an incident.

The incident comes weeks after the UK's terrorism alert level was downgraded.

Officials declared in early November the rating has been downgraded from Severe to Substantial.

It was the first time the threat of an attack has been set at Substantial since August 2014.

London Bridge was the focus of another terror attack in 2017.

Eleven people were killed when three attackers launched a knife rampage around the popular central London food and entertainment area.

I don't understand why this radical islamist extremist with such a violent history was allowed to roam free in public anyway. As if a few years in prison would cure him from his ideology. These psychos will always be ticking time bombs

So you're in favor of life imprisonment without parole in all cases? Or perhaps just executing them? Holding them at Gitmo forever?

A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.

Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy

There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)

Replace "ginger" with "n*gger," and suddenly it become a lot less funny, doesn't it?
-- fgalkin

I dare say. But it would still help if we spent enough money to let them fucking try.

There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)

Replace "ginger" with "n*gger," and suddenly it become a lot less funny, doesn't it?
-- fgalkin

Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."

Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.

8. Are dangerous offenders still automatically released at the halfway stage of their sentence?

A lot has changed since 2008. IPPs have now gone. The failure of the prison system to make available to prisoners the rehabilitative programmes they needed to take to secure their release, due to the horrendous overcrowding, was a genuine Kafkaesque nightmare, which the European Court of Human Rights in 2012 declared was unlawful. The coalition government responded by abolishing IPPs in 2012 (although not for prisoners still serving those sentences), and introducing new Extended Determinate Sentences. It is worth emphasising, to rebut nonsense published by Breitbart contributors today, that the ECtHR ruling on IPPs had nothing whatsoever to do with the Court of Appeal decision in Khan’s case. The Court of Appeal could have lawfully upheld the IPP if it wanted. It was not forced, either by government or by the ECtHR, to change the sentence.

These new Extended Determinate Sentences (EDS) worked like old EPPs, except that you would be automatically released at the two thirds stage of your sentence if your custodial term was under 10 years, and would go before the Parole Board at the two thirds stage if your custodial term was 10 years or more or you were convicted of certain specified offences.

9. So the coalition government were still automatically releasing dangerous offenders?

Yes. They were being kept in for slightly longer, but there was still no Parole Board oversight, except for the most dangerous of dangerous offenders. This changed in 2015, when all EDS prisoners were required to secure Parole Board approval for release at the two thirds stage. That remains the position today.

10. What is the government proposing to do?

To listen to the Prime Minister’s rhetoric, plenty. To read his manifesto, nothing. The changes that are proposed to release provisions relate specifically to offenders who do not receive EDS – the government wants to make it so that a tiny handful of defendants who are possibly a bit-sort-of-dangerous-but-maybe-not will serve two thirds of their sentence before automatic release. So they are not proposing to introduce any further Parole Board oversight of these prisoners – simply to keep them in a bit longer so that Johnson can boast about increasing sentences.

Much of what has been said today by government ministers is completely false.
...snip....

As this is likely to run and run today, forgive me if I repeat this: In 2019, no terrorist sentenced to a term of imprisonment is subject to automatic early release. The Prime Minister’s attempts to suggest that we have the same system as applied at the time of Usman Khan’s sentence, and that he is the man to fix it, are dishonest, cynical and exploitative.

Well,how radical of a deradicalization program are we talking about here? I know a few guys who are comfortable with the medieval stuff...

They usually involve counselling, and in case of religious extremist, they will get it from their religious leaders like priests or Imans that can help them understand how they can practice their beliefs in a manner that is non-extremist.

Humans are such funny creatures. We are selfish about selflessness, yet we can love something so much that we can hate something.